No surplus of flags and gas masks

Aside from ingenious stoners who invent neat ways to smoke pot and Old Townhomes partygoers who refuse to let a little thing like tear gas keep them from torching a car, gas masks have never really been a popular accessory for most Americans. That all changed on Sept.11.

After the attacks, gas masks virtually disappeared from army surplus stores.

Frank Klansek, who owns Buckeye Surplus in Akron, says he sold 100 gas masks, his entire stock, for $24.95 each within three days of the attacks. In the weeks that followed, gas masks were selling on the Internet for three or four times Klansek's price.

Tim Flynn, the owner of Army Navy Discount Supply in Ravenna, says he sold about 800 gas masks in the two months following Sept.11.

"I could have sold thousands," Flynn adds.

Klansek says his supplier in California, a company called Corps, sold out its stock of 23,000 masks in two days.

Although gas masks seemed to be flying off the shelves during the days that directly followed the attacks, the hysteria has seemed to subside.

"The novelty has pretty much worn off," Klansek says, "but I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Whether or not the other shoe actually drops, the usefulness of the gas masks is debatable. Dr. Kenneth Rupp, the Portage County health commissioner, points out several problems with people trying to use gas masks. To be effective, a mask must fit properly and be worn correctly. Also, gas masks aren't designed to protect someone against biological agents, like bacteria and viruses.

"To be honest," Rupp says, "they're a waste of time."

Flynn agrees that a full biomedical containment suit is necessary to keep a person safe from biological weapons, but he says he began keeping a gas mask in his car long before the Sept.11 attacks. Flynn says he has used his mask twice during fires. He also used his mask once when there was a carbon monoxide leak in his house.

Klansek adds that anyone who wants to hang around after an attack is missing the point of having a gas mask. A gas mask is only useful as a temporary solution in an emergency.

"You want to head for the hills and get the hell out of town," he says.

Klansek and Flynn both agree that the Y2K hysteria forced the United States to better prepare itself for large-scale disasters.

Flynn looked at the scare from the perspective of the individual and wrote a pamphlet on how to prepare for disasters. The pamphlet describes how to put together a basic first-aid kit. It also goes over other survival supplies that someone would need in a disaster.

In addition to gas masks, the other big seller at army surplus stores is Old Glory itself.

"The Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Veterans' Day - I didn't sell one flag," Klansek says. Since the attacks, he says he's sold more American flags than he had in the16 years before Sept.11. Klansek attributes the boom in flag sales to artificial patriotism, media hype and a monkey-see-monkey-do mentality.

Being located in a rural area has given Flynn an interesting perspective on the recent rise in American flag sales. Before Sept.11, Flynn says he sold about 150 Confederate flags for every one American flag. Now the numbers are almost completely opposite. He says he hardly sells any Confederate flags anymore.

Regardless of the widespread patriotism that has surged through the nation since Sept.11, Klansek says waving flags won't be enough to make the United States safe from terrorism.

"The American people are going to need to do more than just put up flags," Klansek says. "What's the average person actually willing to sacrifice to fight this?"

Continued>> [1] [3]